Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Writing Romance by Felicity Heaton


Writing romance – possibly the best job in the world?

I’m Felicity Heaton, and I can’t think of any job in this world that is better than the one I have. What out there is more fun than spending your time creating worlds in which your imagination can run riot, crafting characters who become real in the minds of readers, and sharing experiences through a story with those readers? I can’t think of anything I want to do more than what I do now—writing romance novels.

I love the whole process, from the initial concept through to planning the story, plotting out all those twists and turns I like to weave into my books, to creating the characters and bringing them to life, giving them histories and the facets of personality that will make them shine on the page, and then editing the story until it shines too. There isn’t anything about writing romance that I don’t enjoy. Yes, I even love the effort it takes to promote my stories because it gives me a chance to connect with readers and speak to them about my books, and discover what they liked about them, and sometimes what they didn’t like. It’s all a huge learning process and I’m constantly evolving as a writer, growing with each book I pen or read.

I’ve been writing romance since 2005, when I was first e-published. I enjoyed being e-published but at the time I was doing most of the work, including creating my own covers, and when I started talking to an author friend about a change in the route I was taking, we quickly both decided to become indie authors. I’ve been indie since 2006, and while I have occasionally submitted stories to publishers and agents, I’ve been happy with my life as an indie. It gives me the freedom to write the stories that matter to me, at the lengths they deserve to be, rather than having to write for market. I have so many stories that I want to tell, and being indie means that I can get them out there sooner, connecting with more readers quicker than I could have if I had been traditionally published.

But that’s enough about my history, what I really wanted to talk about today was my love of writing. It’s a passion and an obsession, a force that drives me and never relents. I’m always working on something, whether it’s a first draft, plotting a new story, or editing, or even marketing. I’m constantly on the go, and constantly generating new ideas for characters or stories. I love writing romance because of the connections in the stories, the beauty of the first blossom of a relationship when it all begins and the big bang happens in our hearts, or the moment when lovers are reunited, overcoming their past to build a future together. Love is beautiful, and it’s something that humans crave to feel and experience, even when it’s through books. We can’t seem to put them down. My shelves are stacked with romances, from classic novels to modern paranormal romances and science fiction and fantasy. I write romance because I love to read romance. I like the warm feeling it gives me, and the smile it brings to my face, and how lost I can become in a good romance story. It’s that which I want to give my readers. I want to give to them what I have received from so many other authors—an escape into a world packed with romance and action that brings me a big smile of satisfaction and happiness at the end of it.

I write paranormal romances and science fiction romances, two genres that I have adored since I was a young child. I have book reports written as a six year old where I’m only ever satisfied if the characters in the story were scary—vampires, witches, werewolves or Frankenstein’s monster—if they weren’t paranormal, I declared the book was boring. I have tried my hand at contemporary, historical, and romantic suspense, but it makes sense to me that I write what I love to read, and that means there has to be a supernatural or futuristic element to the story.

Because I’m an indie author, my stories can vary in length, from a 10,000 word short story to a 160,000 word novel. That’s around the equivalent of a 550 page mass-market paperback. I tend to mix and match between writing stand alone stories and series, but love to write series most of all as that’s where I can really flex my world-building muscles and can have more fun with characters. I have two series of science fiction romance short stories and novellas, an ongoing paranormal angel romance series, a duo of sexy black panther shape-shifter novels, and an ongoing vampire romance series too, amongst others.

I don’t write the goody-two-shoes vampires and werewolves, those that won’t touch a drop of blood unless it’s animal or synthetic. I write dark paranormal romances where the characters aren’t ashamed or afraid to act as nature intended, but they are balanced, and feel as much as humans do. It’s a fine line to tread, but I think it adds excitement to the story, and a sense of realism, or as close to one as you can get in a paranormal story. If you’re looking for dangerous heroes or even anti-heroes, then I write them in spades, each as dark as the next, and each with a hint or a hefty dose of bad-boy appeal. I write realistic heroines who have their moments of fear, but can kick ass when required and aren’t afraid to go out there and get what they want, which is usually the hero.

This year, I’ll be releasing eleven stories in total, three of them free reads, and they’ll all be paranormal romances. There’ll be dark angels, sexy vampires, drop-dead gorgeous werewolves, and even a hellcat. So, if you’re looking for a new paranormal romance or science fiction romance author to sink your teeth into, why not check out my website? I love to interact with readers too, so you can always get in touch with me on Twitter and Facebook, or through my blog or website. My website has excerpts of all of my stories, so you can get a feel for the stories and my writing before purchasing.

Thanks for having me here today and if any readers have any comments or questions, please feel free to voice them and I’ll answer them as soon as possible.

If you want to know more about me and my stories, or want to get in touch, you can find me at the following places:







Love Immortal

Felicity Heaton

When you're searching for your purpose, the last thing you expect to discover is that you're the latest reincarnation of a goddess on a three thousand year old mission to defeat the original werewolf, Lycaon, before he can gain revenge on Zeus and Olympus.

Rescued from the claws of werewolves by Julian, a handsome and mysterious immortal, Lauren is pulled into a dark and frightening new world full of monsters out to kill her and an organisation of people with phenomenal abilities who want to protect her—Ghost. But the most frightening thing of all is that soon Lauren will need to drink Julian's blood in order to reawaken and regain her immortal powers.

Or she will die.

Julian isn't about to let that happen. He's never met anyone like Lauren and he's determined not to lose her. She's the perfect copy of Illia but is nothing like her or any of the incarnations. She is light to their darkness, and she breathes life back into him, but can he trust her with his heart and bring himself to believe that the feelings she shows him are real after everything he has been through?

Can Lauren succeed in defeating Lycaon when all of her predecessors have failed? Will she be able to crack the armour around Julian's heart and seize her happily forever after with him?
Available in e-book for $3.99 from:





Available in paperback for $12.99 from:



Posted by Spellboundbybooks Mel at 5:32 PM
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...